Hangers for pants have been known and used for hundreds of years. As presently available commercially, they consist of a single hanger for each pair of pants to be hung. The hanger is usually a pair of cross-bars, extending horizontally, which are clamped together by some type of spring clamping mechanism, with the cuff or bottom end of the pants legs positioned between the clamped together cross-bars. The cross-bars are attached to a supporting hook, so that when the hook is placed over a closet fixture or other support the pants are held upside down, in extended, flat position with the trouser seams straight and aligned and the cloth smooth and flat, thus preventing the formation of wrinkles.
Obviously, these commercially available hangers do an acceptable job; they have been used in large quantities, for many years. But they are not perfect, and they have disadvantages which no one, even over a period of many years, has prior to the present invention been able to obviate, or to overcome through re-design.
For example, if a single hanger that will accept a large number of pants or slacks were made available, in commercially feasible form, it would take up less closet room and could keep an entire set of pants or slacks in one place, which facilitates selection of one pair from among many. Such hangers have been suggested broadly, in the past. See for example, Thorpe U.S. Pat. No. 620,260, issued Feb. 28, 1899 and Glines U.S. Pat. No. 2,287,473, issued June 23, 1942. But the pants of today do not provide the rough cloth and cuffs that were prevalent in 1899, and therefore cannot be relied on for support by wedge action as in the case of hangers such as shown in the Thorpe patent. Nor would they adequately be supported by simple slots as shown in the Glines patent. There exists today a need not only for a commercially feasible multiple pants and slack hanger, so designed as to be simple and inexpensive to manufacture, but also such a hanger that will readily accept and support both cuffed pants as well as cuffless pants, and which will not only accept but will adequately grip and support such pants when made of smooth, thin synthetic fibers, as well as pants made of natural fibers such as wool or cotton.